Trolling RV question

[iraevski]

I am pretty new to fishing Round Valley, had a quick question about trolling with planer boards.
How far out behind the boat do you put the lure? also how far from the boat should your planer board be when fishing in 10-20ft water?

thank you in advance for your suggestions

[zmerchant7]

What kind of line are you using to troll with? (lead core, flat line, etc.). As for how far your planers are from the boat, there's not really any "perfect" amount. But if you're targeting Rainbow and Brown Trout, usually the farther away the better.

[iraevski]

sorry i forgot to mention, yes i will be trolling with leadcore.

[Capt. Lou]

Mast height determines how far u can comfortably deploy ur boards. Like was mentioned trout the further out the better especially in clear worked water.
depth ur fishing is simply regulated by trolling line or method being used.
to br successfull u have to manage this depth with fairly accurate lure positioing in strike zones especially this time of yesr when Lk turnover can occur.
Winter / spring u can high line ur lures or fish at moderate depths prior to thermo forming , once this happens its good to know which temp range appeals to fis ur after. Valley is fully oxygenated so temps become important to overall consisitent catches.
Choppy days troll speed must be adjusted to compensate to keep lure action at optimumn.
I like to run specific lures at different positions behind the boards ,always inside stackers r shoetrr to mange ur turns without hassles.

[jimmythegreek]

theres alot more to it then how far back. Capt lou is referring to great lakes type planers that use a mast system, thats not what you have Im guessing, you are using inline boards. Hes absolutely right as far as temp and depths, the trout like a certain water temp and will stray from that when chasing bait, otherwise they hang in comfort zones. Temp probes shine here as do downriggers to target those zones, not sure on water temps now but Id run a staggered depth pattern and adjust to any fish you catch or where u mark them........Anyway to answer your question, with leadcore there is a thousand different setups, some guys use 3 colors with backing and a leader, some fill the reel with full colors, some use full roll split on 2 reels. If you are fishing in 10-20 ft of water you are gonna have issues getting hung up on RV, the depths change quickly, Im gonna guess you mean 10-20 feet down in whatever depth of water. Leadcore is very speed dependant, but as a standard w a spoon trolling at 1.5mph GPS speed one length of color (30ft) will get you down 5-6 feet in depth. U want to run a floro leader to your lure and let out one color for every 5 feet down u wanna go. Trolling for trout usually means changing speeds so if you bump up to 2.0mph it changes to 4-5ft for every color, and at 1mph its about 6-7 ft down. This is w 18lb leadcore, the suffix 832 is a lil deeper and the heavier leadcore is a little less cause altho heavier it has more resistance to the water. Search on google for precision trolling or leadcore dive charts and look on the images tabs. Print that out and take it with you. Make sure u use the appropriate knot to attach ur leadcore thats the first rookie mistake many ppl make with it. And remember if using a crank or diving bait that doesnt account for the lures depth. Basically what Im saying is if you ran 100 ft of line out with a rapala F-11 and pinned it to the downrigger ball 100 ft down ur lure is actually at 107 cause the lure will dive 7ft on its own, it doesnt matter what system u get it down with (leadcore, snapweights, downrigger) it will still dive like it does at surface, this goes with ALL lures

[iraevski]

theres alot more to it then how far back. Capt lou is referring to great lakes type planers that use a mast system, thats not what you have Im guessing, you are using inline boards. Hes absolutely right as far as temp and depths, the trout like a certain water temp and will stray from that when chasing bait, otherwise they hang in comfort zones. Temp probes shine here as do downriggers to target those zones, not sure on water temps now but Id run a staggered depth pattern and adjust to any fish you catch or where u mark them........Anyway to answer your question, with leadcore there is a thousand different setups, some guys use 3 colors with backing and a leader, some fill the reel with full colors, some use full roll split on 2 reels. If you are fishing in 10-20 ft of water you are gonna have issues getting hung up on RV, the depths change quickly, Im gonna guess you mean 10-20 feet down in whatever depth of water. Leadcore is very speed dependant, but as a standard w a spoon trolling at 1.5mph GPS speed one length of color (30ft) will get you down 5-6 feet in depth. U want to run a floro leader to your lure and let out one color for every 5 feet down u wanna go. Trolling for trout usually means changing speeds so if you bump up to 2.0mph it changes to 4-5ft for every color, and at 1mph its about 6-7 ft down. This is w 18lb leadcore, the suffix 832 is a lil deeper and the heavier leadcore is a little less cause altho heavier it has more resistance to the water. Search on google for precision trolling or leadcore dive charts and look on the images tabs. Print that out and take it with you. Make sure u use the appropriate knot to attach ur leadcore thats the first rookie mistake many ppl make with it. And remember if using a crank or diving bait that doesnt account for the lures depth. Basically what Im saying is if you ran 100 ft of line out with a rapala F-11 and pinned it to the downrigger ball 100 ft down ur lure is actually at 107 cause the lure will dive 7ft on its own, it doesnt matter what system u get it down with (leadcore, snapweights, downrigger) it will still dive like it does at surface, this goes with ALL lures

thank you for the advice. yes i am running inline boards with 18in leadcore with a 60 foot fluoro leader. i have noticed on the sonar that a lot of fish hang out 10-20 ft from the surface so i guess i will try that depth first.

in terms of getting the lure to a certain depth with leadcore colors, i understand how that works. my main question is i guess how long of a fluoro leader would i need to attach to the leadcore. the longer the leader, the further behind the boat my bait will be. (hence my question regarding how far out behind the board the leader + leadcore will be).

I guess i should have asked how long should the fluoro leader be. of course the depth of the lure will depend on how long the leadcore is out. My question is how far the whole set up should be behind the boat in order not to spook the fish.

[Capt. Lou]

The leaders on LC in my expierance @ the valley & every lake in between has been about 6 to 10' depending on lure ,too long & lure will wander out of strike zone. The real key is to use light leaders on softer taper rods ! ASlso on the LC dark color to leader !
The lures will not wander if that ld is kept shorter & u'll know where u R which is most importsnt!
I would say those 20' readings ur gettrig R not trout takr temp if abov mid sixties than probably school fish perch or other.
The LC u realy dont require PB's just out rodders ,good ones to seperate lines!
Jimme couls probably fill u in on the type that would fit ur bost ! Used to use Downeast clamps on's ! Probaby other more effivcent styles for small boats today

[slider]

Bet if u asked 5 fisherman that question you'd get 5 different answers..I'll give u my 2 cents worth..To me whole object is to be a stealthy as possible so starting with leader type fluoro is the way to go, my choice would be Seaguar kind of expensive but a good starting point...Distance again depends on your stealth mode clearer the water longer the leader and further away and behind the boat u go..I would doubt 1 particular distance would be productive every time out..Personnaly I would go long but not more than 40 feet to start and go from there..3 colors is a good bet with a 40 foot leader when trout are in that top 20 to 25 foot zone..Need to go deeper snap weights a good plan about 20foot from lure..Then it becomes a game of experimenting with weight distance and speed..Thats just for starters...Most anglers don't reaize the amount of effort that goes into becoming a good troller..Lots of luck to you..Slider

[iraevski]

thank you for all the responses. i guess i will try out a 3 color with 30-40 leader and go from there.

around this time of the year what depth do you guys usually work? like i said i seen some fish at 10-20 ft but not sure it if is trout. since this was pretty far from any structure i figured they werent bass. the marks looked too big to be perch or sunfish

[jimmythegreek]

I agree with all the posts, but I do it a little different. I dont rly use leadcore cause I dont need it, I either run downriggers for lakers and stack a line for trout, or I use snap weights or inline weights. I use my trolling combos for lots of other duties so leadcore would make little use to me as I mainly troll live bait and usually for stripers, hard fighting fish put a hurting on leadcore. But in ur instance I would do the same setup on all ur leadcore rods and hopefully u have line counters, trolling is all about being able to reproduce whats working, and knowing where ur lure is. U still didnt say what lure u plan on running, so thats gonna play into the setup too. I personally like long leaders, unless Im tieing to mono. mono to floro is 5-6 ft, in clear water like the valley I personally would go 20ft minimum prob more like 50ft. Trout can be very finicky and line shy, 8# seaguar is my RV/MC leader line, for lakers I go 12# floro off 12# mono on downriggers. To see fish 10-20ft down on your graph u are going right over them, ur cone angle is very small, if they are in open water and you are sure its fish then they are trout. If u have a humminbird and the fish ID thing is telling u its fish, it may not be, u wanna use raw sonar data to determine actual fish and bait balls. If you have tattle flags on your planers send them out a ways, 75ft or so is good for a single set, if I run 4 boards I go 60 on insides and 100-110 on outsides, of course if the water is glass and bluebird skies I go further. If your trolling a spoon 3 colors at 1.5mph w a 50ft leader will put u down close to 18ft so its usually best to fish higher than ur marks by a few feet, try one board 2 colors and one board 3 colors and see what works.

[iraevski]

I agree with all the posts, but I do it a little different. I dont rly use leadcore cause I dont need it, I either run downriggers for lakers and stack a line for trout, or I use snap weights or inline weights. I use my trolling combos for lots of other duties so leadcore would make little use to me as I mainly troll live bait and usually for stripers, hard fighting fish put a hurting on leadcore. But in ur instance I would do the same setup on all ur leadcore rods and hopefully u have line counters, trolling is all about being able to reproduce whats working, and knowing where ur lure is. U still didnt say what lure u plan on running, so thats gonna play into the setup too. I personally like long leaders, unless Im tieing to mono. mono to floro is 5-6 ft, in clear water like the valley I personally would go 20ft minimum prob more like 50ft. Trout can be very finicky and line shy, 8# seaguar is my RV/MC leader line, for lakers I go 12# floro off 12# mono on downriggers. To see fish 10-20ft down on your graph u are going right over them, ur cone angle is very small, if they are in open water and you are sure its fish then they are trout. If u have a humminbird and the fish ID thing is telling u its fish, it may not be, u wanna use raw sonar data to determine actual fish and bait balls. If you have tattle flags on your planers send them out a ways, 75ft or so is good for a single set, if I run 4 boards I go 60 on insides and 100-110 on outsides, of course if the water is glass and bluebird skies I go further. If your trolling a spoon 3 colors at 1.5mph w a 50ft leader will put u down close to 18ft so its usually best to fish higher than ur marks by a few feet, try one board 2 colors and one board 3 colors and see what works.

thank you Jimmy. i will try this out. i am planning to use warrior spoons and rapala j9 and j11. probably run 2 boards to start with. i also have a downrigger, might try that too. as someone else mentioned, i don't want to hug bottom with the downrigger as the depth changes quite a bit and i will get snagged. i am not seeing anything on the bottom, not sure where the lakers are supposed to be. i might need a better sonar unit. right now i am running a garmin echo 200. dont really have the cash for $500+ unit

[jimmythegreek]

What I usually do is setup 4 boards and run them all with spoons/cowbells except one and ill run a fly/dodger combo or a rapala usually size 7 or 9 on it, those target 15-20 ft down looking for rainbows/browns up high. Theres not many of em left in RV the majority of fish u catch are lakers, they are everywhere. To target them u need to raise ur gain and zoom in on ur bottom 1/3 of screen to see them, they look like the bottom on regular finders unless they are up off the bottom a little feeding/active. They arent very line shy an u can run short lead lengths of 15-20ft back on ur downrigger ball and literally hug bottom. If you have 2 downriggers run a single or stack 10-15ft off bottom for active fish and keep on the other one adjusting to the depths, out in the open the bottom changes slowly, I often bump bottom w the ball and raise it a few feet keeping it close, this is how I get most lakers, just set ur drag on DR right in case and use high drag spoon/flasher combos to keep line up and tight. OR troll around and mark any bottom marks u see and go back and hit em with a binsky or crippled herring or whatever jigs u like, the lakers love jigs. Can even send a shiner down w a heavy sinker, they are eating machines

[Capt. Lou]

All very good trolling info just bear in mind u said ur after trout not lakers or other species.
just check some older logs I had from mid sixties to rouhgly late seventies when I turned to the big lk ! I landed over two hundred trout over 3#'s mostly browns. Did not keep track of stockers .
Thses were caught in local lks before all the introduction of sripers. musky, lakers etc. Most RV since I lived close by for yrs. Others lks Hoptacong, Greenwood , Swartswood, SR & Paupack.
Spent hundreds of Hrs trolling just for trout sometimes yr ruod. never used the riggrs since at that time their development and use was geared to GT Lakes.
My set ups were designed after the Fingers Lks deep trollers who wer very temp concience. Back thrn it was copper & SG rigs.
The majority my big trout those over 5#'s were taken via the LC rigs I described always guided ny temps period.
I used to use an King & Furuno paper machine on GT Lakes to find fish, outline bottom & monitor ball depth. Note on larger bodies of water ur DR ball usually has a minimum of 10% scope when trolling ove 50' ft or so. , u can probably overcome this today woith braid .
When I set up with DR I always allowed for that & I knew exactly where that ball depth was via my dedicated stern machine. Prior used the Lowarance grn box on all local waters since it was the only FF available & pretty dam good !
That DR also had my tremp probe cable to reflrct I stayed within my chosen range & reflected ant temp changes so I could adjust.
Locally I only monitored temp ranges & used the LC outfits too take all my big trout.
I always preferred a presentation that would be temp precise & get my lure away from the boat. Those days trollers on the valley were few and far between, so I understand some changes maybe required to take TROUT consistently over what I practiced many moons ago.
However some things never change & thats the temps certain fish will remain in to feed & thrive.
If u learn to fish by degrees & how to classify which species R where then u will fish correctly for trout.
FF R great to find fish & outline bottom contours, learn to incorporate temp into that equation of sought species then u can improve catches
Just a footnote most of my local big TROUT caught April to June prior to thermo setting up & immediately after !
This time of year with possible Lk turnover occuring was the worst. Since as cool water drops fish can now scatter throughtout ranges & leave their thermo home.
hence stagger & cover vertial ranges rather than horizontal water. Also learn to use ur FF to show active fish instead of just fish. Watch for upward streaks not just logs in water.Sometimes u only get ashort time of active feeding so watch for it ,otherwuisr in for long days!
All my big local trout , no lakers than taken 20' plus feet ,spring only until July!
In my opinion if U R after trout with the exception of lakers then learn to monitor temps & rely on outfits that will get lure down & away from boat & dont rely on lureS that everyone uses ,fish see those day after day!
Spoons accounted for 80% of my big fish not to say plugs dont excel on certain days ,always experiment !
Good Luck !
PS I believe in & used SOL periods to guide me to active fish time!! I firmly belive moon phases can get u prime feeds not always but when it occurs it can make UR day as can choppy water & overcast days!!:cool: